After a year of planning and three months of editing, mixing and mastering, the new album Kray Van Kirk - Live at the Acorn is finished. My deepest thanks to Nikki Gauthier and Ashley Magnus of The Acorn Center for the Performing Arts for giving me use of the absolutely delightful Acorn theater.
In 2022, on a whim from my studio in northern California, I entered a singer-songwriter contest held by the Acorn. I got accepted and took the train from Sacramento to Three Oaks, Michigan, complete with loooong halt just outside of Colorado Springs due to a landslide that had covered the tracks, and another loooong halt on the return outside of Salt Lake City due to more flooding that had covered the tracks.
But I digress.
I was fortunate enough to place first in the competition, and as I had wanted to do a live concert recording for a while and loved the sound and layout of the Acorn, discussed the idea with Nikki. We settled on May 20th, 2023 for the show. The Acorn did a wonderful job of promoting the show, and many of the audience had been in attendance during the singer-songwriter competition. They were enthusiastic and full of energy, and you can hear two ladies in particular from the front row through the entire concert.
The show was a good two hours+ long, but a CD will only hold 78 minutes of material, so some editing was in order. A few tunes and stories were tucked in safely for next time, and even some of the pauses between dialogue and songs were trimmed to make the CD come in at 77 minutes 47 seconds with as many songs and stories as possible.
Days of Mercy (by my good friend Rupert Wates), The Tollbooth Ladies, Mary Shelley, Athena and the Fisher King, Rosa and Hector, Practical Magic, The Fisherman and the Selkie are all new to this album and haven't been previously recorded. I hope you find something on the record you like, and I hope to see you out on the road soon.
